(more…)

1. There is no secret.
2. There is no secret.
3. Okay there are a few secrets. Here they are.

Choose your weapon. Have you ever been talking to someone when they suddenly switched accents on you, but kept on going as if nothing at all had happened? Maybe not but that would be odd. How about if you thought you were talking about the game last night and it went something like, “That was a touchdown. Those refs are blind and did you know that my cat hates mittens? My team has a chance but kitten mittens are not a good idea I don’t care how much it rhymes.” What on earth are you supposed to do with that conversation? Are we talking about cat apparel or the football game? You would never hear that in real life, but you see it in copy all the time: “If you don’t invest in this right now the sky will fall and you will miss the opportunity of a lifetime and did you know the future is bright and we’re a great happy company to invest with?” Huh? Wait am I hoarding for the apocalypse or skipping to candy land with a smile on my face? “Both! Just buy buy buy! Whatever works!” You don’t necessarily need to have the same voice in every ad and piece of marketing material (though one brand identity is the best approach). At the very least don’t mix emotional messages, or even style, in a single piece. How does it happen to start with? Too many voices want to be heard, everyone wants skin in the game. It is okay (if you do your marketing in-house) to get input and information from as many places as possible, that’s a good thing, but pick a direction and stick with it, and try to have a single writer and a single designer for a single project. (more…)

1. You have a cell phone? What percent of those calls are business related? Are all of them? Did you bring a bunch of pens from home? Where’d that printer paper come from? The stapler was in your desk at home so you brought it to work and now it’s the work stapler? All that stuff counts so make a list and say “Here accountant, work your magic.”

2. Measure the square footage of home space used exclusively for business. This isn’t just for work-from-home businesses. Is the overflow stock sitting in your garage? Measure it. Do you have a computer at home dedicated solely for work purposes because you can’t have the kids downloading their viruses and MP3s where you store work stuff? Measure the area it’s in. (more…)

It’s the most basic type of marketing collateral in many ways:

– It speaks directly to a prospect because it is personal.

– It demands some WOW factor because, unlike billboards, television, radio, even the Internet to an extent, the reader is never in a passive mode and is always on the verge of disregarding the message if you do not keep their interest.

– These pieces are most effective when simple – with a clear benefit, call to action, and deadline. (more…)

Content creation should go beyond your website. For most businesses there is value in letting the customers or clients know that you are an authority in your area, and that means that your expertise should be on display online as well as in the shop. This is also one of the essential elements in online placement. The more quality content that is associated with your products and your business, the more likely it is that those online pages will be ranked high in various searches related to your business, and the better the chances that any links from those pages to your site will help to bump up the placement of your actual website. That’s a huge plus.

So how do you do that?

Contribute to a related blog – If there are already popular blogs related to your business or your product you may want to contact that blogger about contributing. Most are looking for quality content. Each blog will have their own rules concerning the types of articles which may be submitted, and usually they need to be informative pieces as opposed to promotional. Only choose quality blogs for this. A bad link today can do more harm than good. (more…)

1. Stay positive but cool. Nothing numbs any potential excitement someone else may or may not have about what you’re saying than being negative.

2. Smile. But mix in other facial expressions now and then. Too much smiling hurts and will give you wrinkles. More important, too much smiling is off-putting and creepy.

3. Okay now we’ll do the real advice. (more…)